I have been listening to the radio as I washed the dishes after dinner. People have been calling in with personal reports from Louisiana and Mississippi. I am a little reluctant to write about insignificant events in my ordinary life, when so many are suffering so greatly. However life goes on for all of us. I donate to relief efforts, but I still search for beneficial food for my family.

Today I went to the oriental market to buy miso. I had bought miso originally because of a recipe for a tofu sauce. Miso is beneficial for Type As, and my husband discovered that he liked it stuffed into celery sticks and spread on sandwiches instead of mayonnaise or mustard.

The oriental market is a cultural experience for me because all of the food labels are in Korean or Chinese. The employees are talking to the customers in Korean. I realize that the stockers speak no English. The easy thing to do is pick up the first tub of miso that I see and buy it. Fortunately, I turned the first tub over and found an ingredient list in very tiny type - it included MSG.

I'm sure the others in the store thought I was nutty. I pulled tub after tub out of the refrigerator. I found one without MSG, but it contained ethanol. That didn't sound good! I kept looking and eventually found a brand that didn't seem to have any avoids.

I had bought Wakame seaweed flakes at the health food store, and had enjoyed mixing them with meat and vegetables (after soaking them in water of course). I found seaweed flakes for a much lower price at the oriental market.

If you go to an oriental market, watch out for MSG; but enjoy great prices on beneficial foods more common in other parts of the world.